RWBY Noir
by milesmorales
Summary: Detectives Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose take to the mean streets of Vale to solve a heinous crime.
1. The Body in the Harbor

Happy endings are for children.

A body was found floating in the harbor this morning. Jane Doe, badly beaten and waterlogged. Cause of death is probably the knife that was broken off between her ribs, but forensics needs to get paid so I'm standing back and sipping on a cheap cup of coffee while they deduce the obvious.

My name is Yang Xiao Long. I'm a detective.

I was young when I joined the force. I'm not young anymore. Too many crimes, too many bodies, too many lies. Too much booze. Too much...

I take another sip of coffee and wish it had a little something to take the edge off but my flask is empty and the liquor stores don't open 'till noon. It's still early morning, though you can hardly see the sun through the overcast gray. The wind off the bay is cool and wet and carries on it the stink of salt, engine oil, and dead fish. This is where the city's garbage gets dumped.

There's a flash of light and I turn my head just in time to take the second flash full in the face.

"Lie!" I shout, trying to blink the spots out of my eyes. "Get your ass back behind that police line _right now_!"

Lie Ren is a photographer at the _Juniper_ , a paper known for gory pictures and exploitative articles. It's trash, but I keep my subscription up to date. Ren's a tall glass of water, and about as interesting. I don't dislike the man, but if he can string two sentences together I haven't heard him do it.

"Aw, come on, chief," a voice sings out. Lie Ren's partner, Nora Valkyrie, a lightning bolt in a pink dress. Full of energy and pep. A journalist, though I use the term loosely. I've caught her humming to herself while writing up notes on a double murder-suicide. She seems completely unphased by the horrors her job entails. Probably why she's so happy.

"You know this isn't the scene of the murder," Nora lilts, as if explaining to a toddler. "So we can't really disturb it that much, can we?" She flutters her baby blue eyes at me in a mimicry of flirting. "Besides," she chirps, rocking back on her heels, "it's not good business for you to cut out the _Juniper_ , is it?"

"You shouldn't be so confident when you're pressing your luck," I growl, but I still shout out to the others to let Ren take his pictures. Nora's not wrong, it's not good business to make enemies, not when you can help it. The _Juniper_ may not bury you in dirt like some people in this town, but they'll bury you in ink. And for a cop looking forward to retirement, that can be just as bad. Besides, they can be useful sometimes.

Nora stands next to me and we watch Ren do his work, the flash of his camera shooting off like a machine gun. Nora sighs wistfully. "Isn't he dreamy?"

I take in the scene. A man with unkempt hair in a green suit taking pictures over a broken girl and being fawned over by a woman who looks like she's on her way to a sock hop. Dreamy isn't the word I'd use.

I don't answer her question, instead I ask, "Why are you always dressed up like you're on your way to a party?"

She looks at me with a twinkle in her eye. "I _am_ the party," she says playfully before turning back to the murder at hand. "So the girl, she was stabbed?" When I nodded she continued. "I can keep that out of the article."

I must have shown my surprise because she laughs at me. "You want to keep the details light, right? Makes it easier to confirm the suspect when you get him. The _Juniper_ is prepared to do everything it can to help the VPD." She trails off and mutters "At least on this case" under her breath.

"What's so special about this case?" I ask, eyeing her sideways.

"What?" she asks. "Oh, nothing." She stops and tilts her head. "Well, I guess there _could_ be, but I don't _know_." Nora lowers her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "And if we can identify her, we'll let you know before the next edition."

"Alright, what's your game, Nora?" This was beyond strange. Holding back details was one thing, but leaking information? Nobody at the _Juniper_ played that game unless they wanted something and wanted it badly.

"Well," she draws out the word as if it were a fuse on a bomb she wanted to be nice and far away when it went off. "You're getting a new partner."

"Yeah, and?" My old partner had retired. He was my first partner, I was his last. It was a big deal for me. I'd come onto the force wide-eyed and bushy tailed and he'd taught me the ugly truth of the job. It's dirty, he'd said, and you can't do it without getting dirty yourself. I'd learned a lot from him but didn't rue his departure, save for the apprehension of having to train some green rookie.

"And I want an exclusive interview from the two of you," Nora answers.

Ren had finished his shutterbuggery and was walking back towards us. "Why would you want that?" I ask. I'm not anything special, just another detective in an underfunded prescient. Who wants to read about me?

"Oh, it's gonna be a great story," Nora says, staring off into the distance with a twinkle in her eyes and a near-maniacal grin gripping her face. Seeing my confusion she continues, her smile slipping into slyness. "You don't know who it is yet, do you?" When I shake my head she practically squeals. "Detective Ruby Rose, newly transferred from Patch."

The flash goes off in my face but I barely register having my picture taken. Detective Ruby Rose, newly transferred from Patch.

My sister.

Suddenly a dead body isn't the hardest part of my day to get through.


	2. The Scarlet Detective

The station is an ant-hill in brick, a busy place filled with people streaming in and out at a frenzied pace. Criminals being brought in for questioning, civilians showing up to make complaints or argue against some injustice against them, some cops coming in on duty while others head back home to their families or an empty apartment. I stand on the sidewalk, looking up at the dirty red-brown building. I'm hesitating, I know, but my past is in there and my sister's future is out here and I don't know which one I'm more scared of.

Nora Valkyrie is beside me, leaning back against a No Loitering sign, a well-chewed pencil gripped between her teeth as she digs through her purse looking for her notepad. She'd followed me back from the scene with Ren, who was now standing in line at a hot dog cart on the corner at her request. "Ah ha!" she exclaims, finding her pad and holding it up triumphantly. "It's so much easier when I just make Ren carry everything." She nods intently. "Pockets, you know?"

I have my own pockets so I ignore her and continue staring at the building. "Nervous?" she asks, not unkindly. I don't respond. I'm not nervous, I don't _do_ nervous. I just want to avoid this as long as possible. "So how long has it been?" she asks. I know she's probing for information, but she's at least being nice about it. Her concern sounds almost genuine.

"Seven years," I tell her. Seven years since I left the hills and woods of Patch for the city of Vale. Truth is I miss it. I miss the sights and the wilds and the friendly people who waved and smiled when you walked by and who all knew your name. I miss my old friends. But my sister?

I think about it. It's a complicated question, but since when is family not complicated? I think back to long summer days lazing about by the lake, baking cookies together in her mom's kitchen, telling scary stories around a campfire. I decide I don't miss her. I miss us.

"I left home when I got the job with the VPD," I say, climbing the steps to the station, Nora tagging close beside. "Haven't had a chance to go back."

"Do you miss it?" she asks, face down in her notebook.

"No," I say without hesitation. I flash Nora a lopsided grin. "Vale's the best city on Remnant, why would I ever want to be someplace else?"

Nora smirks as she jots that down. "Perfect, folks'll eat that up."

I open the door to the station and hold it for Nora before following her in. I flash my badge to the officer on duty and escort the reporter into the bullpen.

It's crowded inside, desks are crammed together wherever they'd fit and people are bumping and jostling each other as they squeeze by on whatever important business they're on. The room is dimly lit with cheap yellow bulbs and a trickle of sun through tall shuttered windows. It smells of mildew, stale coffee, and sweat.

I see her immediately. She's leaning against my desk, an arm draped over a cardboard box containing her possessions, looking around the room in an anxious sort of boredom. She's wearing a scarlet hat and matching trench coat, a bright bleeding wound in the heart of the office.

She always did enjoy the flair her name allowed her.

I tell Nora I'll be a minute and barely get the sentence out when I hear my name called in a high, excited tone. Before I can react I'm hit by a red blur that wraps its arms around my middle and squeezes the air from my lungs. She smells like strawberries.

"Yang!" she exclaims again, as if that's the only word she knows. Her smile is like the sun, bright, and hard to look at. She looks so young in this moment. Too young, really. By her calendar there's only a two year difference between us. But for me it's the whole seven years and an eternity beyond that.

I hug her back with one arm and use the other to take off her hat so I can muss her hair. "It's good to see you, kiddo," I say, hoping I sound warm. It's not a lie, not exactly. Her smile would be the best part of my day if I weren't seeing it here. "What are you doing here though? I thought you were some big-shot up and comer back home."

She blushes. She's always blushed easily. Her cheeks fill with rosy pink flush and embarrassment. I know the embarrassment doesn't just come from my compliment, but at her self-consciousness over the blushing itself, a runaway effect that leaves her constantly wearing a shy, nervous smile.

"Well," she starts, drawing the word out into a long, falling note, "I made Detective JG last month, did dad tell you?" I shake my head. Pops and I don't talk any more. Ruby waves it off. "Well I did. Anyway, the Captain was really impressed with my record and said I'd have a lot more career opportunities if I transferred to one of the cities." She purses her lips and shakes her head. "You know how boring Patch can get."

I nod. Patch doesn't have much in the way of civilization. Petty crimes for a petty island.

Ruby continues. "So the Captain sends off my file and next thing I know I'm getting a call from Lieutenant Schnee to-"

"Lieutenant Schnee?" I cut in. I can feel the anger bubbling up, threatening to boil over. It's like my head is aflame in fury. "Lieutenant _Weiss_ Schnee?"

Ruby nods, seemingly oblivious. "Yeah, she said she had an opening and I thought to myself 'This is great! You'll be able to move to Vale and get to see your sister more often!' I had no idea I'd actually be working in your department! Let alone working with you." Her smile fades and a concerned look falls. "We didn't really know where exactly you were working... You never wrote us... Not even after mom-"

"Ruby," I said, cutting her off again, "I need to go talk with the Lieutenant real quick, you just wait here and I'll be right back, 'kay?"

"But Yang-"

I'm already leaving. "It's about the case we're on, it'll just be a minute," I say, hurriedly. I take a last look back as I leave the room and see Nora sliding up to Ruby with a predatory grin on her face. "And don't talk to her until I get back! Seriously!"

"Spoilsport!" Nora shouts back, still smiling.

The last thing I see as I back out of the room is Nora whispering something to my sister and Ruby giggling behind a raised hand.

She never did know when to listen to me.


End file.
